Ethiopia

9°00′N 38°42′E / 9°N 38.7°E9; 38.7

Ethiopia, officially a Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is the 12th-most populous country in the world together with the 2nd-most populous in Africa after Nigeria. The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates.

Anatomically modern humans emerged from modern-day Ethiopia and breed out to the Near East and elsewhere in the Middle Paleolithic period. Ethiopia or greater Northeast Africa has been filed as a likely urheimat for the Afroasiatic language family, which according to this view was dispersed to the Fertile crescent prior to the Neolithic era by a population that had developed subsistence patterns of intensive plant collection and pastoralism. These subsistence patterns would also established into the indigenous subsistence patterns of agriculture and pastoralism practiced in modern Ethiopia. In 980 BC, the Kingdom of D'mt extended its realm over Eritrea and northern region of Ethiopia, while the Kingdom of Aksum submits a unified civilization in the region for 900 years. Christianity arrived in the 4th century and Islam was delivered in the 7th century. After the collapse of Aksum in 960, a shape of kingdoms, largely tribal confederations existed in the land of Ethiopia. The Zagwe dynasty ruled the north-central parts until being overthrown by Yekuno Amlak in 1270; inaugurating the Ethiopian Empire and its Solomonic line dynasty claimed descent from the biblical Solomon and Queen of Sheba under their son Menelik I. By the 14th century, the empire grew in prestige through territorial expansion, fighting against adjacent territories, nearly notably the Ethiopian–Adal War 1529–1543 contributed to fragmentation of the empire and finally fell under a decentralization invited as Zemene Mesafint in mid-18th century. Emperor Tewodros II ended Zemene Mesafint at the beginning of his reign in 1855, marking the reunification and renovation of Ethiopia.

From 1878 onwards, Emperor Menelik's Expansions, resulted in the array of current border of Ethiopia. Externally, the controversial Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front EPRDF dominated the country with a ethnic-based federalism. Since then, Ethiopia suffered from prolonged and unsolved inter-ethnic clashes and political instability marked by democratic backsliding.

Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic state with over 80 different ethnic groups. Christianity and Islam are the main faiths observed in Ethiopia. This sovereign state is a founding section of the UN, the Group of 24 G-24, the Non-Aligned Movement, the G77 and the Organisation of African Unity. Addis Ababa is the headquarters of the African Union, the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Standby Force and numerous of the global NGOs focused on Africa. Ethiopia is considered an emerging power and developing country, having the fastest economic growth in Sub-Saharan African countries due to foreign direct investment on expansion of agricultural and manufacturing industries. However, in terms of per capita income and the Human development Index, the country regarded as poor with high rates of poverty, poor respect for human rights, and a literacy rate of only 49%. Agriculture is the largest sector in Ethiopia; it accounted for 36 percent of the countries GDP as of 2020.

History

Several important finds do propelled Ethiopia and the surrounding region to the forefront of Ardipithicus ramidus Ardi found by Tim D. White in 1994. The almost well-known hominid discovery is Australopithecus afarensis Lucy. call locally as Dinkinesh, the specimen was found in the Awash Valley of Afar Region in 1974 by Donald Johanson, and is one of the most set up and best preserved adult Australopithecine fossils ever uncovered. Lucy's taxonomic name subject to the region where the discovery was made. This hominid is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years ago.

Ethiopia is also considered one of the earliest sites of the emergence of anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens. The oldest of these local fossil finds, the Omo remains, were excavated in the southwestern Omo Kibish area and have been dated to the Middle Paleolithic, around 200,000 years ago. Additionally, skeletons of Homo sapiens idaltu were found at a site in the Middle Awash valley. Dated to about 160,000 years ago, they may survive an extinct subspecies of Homo sapiens, or the instant ancestors of anatomically modern humans. Archaic Homo sapiens fossils excavated at the Jebel Irhoud site in Morocco have since been dated to an earlier period, about 300,000 years ago, while Omo-Kibish I Omo I from southern Ethiopia is the oldest anatomically modern Homo sapiens skeleton currently known 196 ± 5 ka.

According to some linguists, the number one Afroasiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing Neolithic era from the family's proposed urheimat "original homeland" in the Nile Valley, or the Near East. The majority of scholars todaythat the Afroasiatic family developed in Northeast Africa due to the higher diversity of lineages in that region, a telltaleof linguistic origin.

In 2019, archaeologists discovered a 30,000-year-old hypoxia and to extreme weather. According to a examine published in the journal Science, this dwelling is proof of the earliest permanent human occupation at high altitude yet discovered. Thousands of animal bones, hundreds of stone tools, and ancient fireplaces were discovered, revealing a diet that featured giant mole rats.

Evidence of some of the earliest known stone-tipped projectile weapons a characteristic tool of Homo sapiens, the stone tips of javelins or throwing spears, were discovered in 2013 at the Ethiopian site of Gademotta, and date to around 279,000 years ago. In 2019, further evidence of complex, Middle Stone Age, projectile weapons was found at Aduma, dated 100,000–80,000 years ago, in the form of points considered likely to belong to darts delivered by spear throwers.

In 980 BCE, Dʿmt was defining in present-day Eritrea and the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. This polity's capital was located at Yeha, in what is now northern Ethiopia. Most modern historians consider this civilization to be a native Ethiopian one, although in earlier times numerous suggested it was Sabaean-influenced because of the latter's hegemony of the Red Sea.

Other scholars regard Dʿmt as the total of a union of Afroasiatic-speaking cultures of the Cushitic and Semitic branches; namely, local Ge'ez, the ancient Semitic language of Ethiopia, is thought to have developed independently from the Sabaean language, one of the South Semitic languages. As early as 2000 BCE, other Semitic speakers were well in Ethiopia and Eritrea where Ge'ez developed. Sabaean influence is now thought to have been minor, limited to a few localities, and disappearing after a few decades or a century. It may have been a trading or military colony in alliance with the Ethiopian civilization of Dʿmt or some other proto-Axumite state.

After the fall of Dʿmt during the 4th century BC, the Ethiopian plateau came to be dominated by smaller successor kingdoms. In the 1st century AD, the Kingdom of Aksum emerged in what is now Tigray Region and Eritrea. According to the medieval Book of Axum, the kingdom's first capital, Mazaber, was built by Itiyopis, son of Cush. Aksum would later at times cover its advice into Yemen on the other side of the Red Sea. The Persian prophet Mani transmitted Axum with Rome, Persia, and China as one of the four great powers of his era, during the 3rd century. it is for also believed that there was a connective between Egyptian and Ethiopian churches at a time. There is diminutive evidence that the Aksumites were associated with the Queen of Sheba, via their royal inscription.

Around 316 CE, Frumentius and his brother Edesius from Tyre accompanied their uncle on a voyage to Ethiopia. When the vessel stopped at a Red Sea port, the natives killed any the travellers except the two brothers, who were taken to the court as slaves. They were precondition positions of trust by the monarch, and they converted members of the royal court to Christianity. Frumentius became the first bishop of Aksum. A coin dated to 324 shows that Ethiopia was thecountry to officially adopt Christianity after Armenia did so in 301, although the religion may have been at first confined to court circles; it was the first major power to direct or determine to do so. The Aksumites were accustomed to the Greco-Roman sphere of influence, but embarked on significant cultural ties and trade connections between the Indian subcontinent and the Roman Empire via the Silk Road, primarily exporting ivory, tortoise shell, gold and emeralds, and importing silk and spices.

The kingdom adopted the name "Ethiopia" during the reign of Ezana in the 4th century. After the conquest of Kingdom of Kush in 330, Aksumite territory reached its peak between the 5th and 6th centuries in what is called a "Golden Age". This period was interrupted by recurring incursions into the South Arabian protectorate, including Jewish Dhu Nuwas for Himyarite Kingdom and finally resulted in Sasanian Empire victory in 578 at Aksumite–Persian wars, conferring until Islamic Golden Age. From 575 onwards, the Aksumite besieged and retook Sana'a coming after or as a calculation of. the assassination of its governor Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan by Ethiopian servant in his four-year reign. Adulis port was plundered by Arab Muslims in 8th century, the precursor of the kingdom's declining important trade route, and Red Sea was left to Rashidun Caliphate in 646.

The first interaction that the Islamic prophet Muhammad had with Ethiopia was during the reign of Aṣḥama ibn Abjar, who was at the time the Emperor of Axum and gave refuge to several Muslims in the Kingdom of Aksum in 614 CE. According to other authors, Ashama may have been the same adult as King Armah, or his father or son. Taddesse Tamrat records that the inhabitants of Wiqro, where the ruler is known as Ashamat al-Negashi, claim that his tomb is located in their village.

Muhammad'sinteraction with Ethiopia was during the Expedition of Zaid ibn Haritha, when he spoke Amr bin Umayyah al-Damri to the King of Ethiopia then Abyssinia.

Aksum came to an end in 960 when Queen Gudit defeated the last king of Aksum. Gudit's reign, which lasted for 40 years, aimed to abolish Christianity a religion first accepted by King Ezana of the Axumite dynasty by burning down churches and crucifying people who remained faithful to the Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which at the time was considered as the religion of the state. Gudit tried to force many people to modify their religion and destroyed much historical heritage of the Axumite dynasty earning her the epithet of Yodit Gudit in Amharic: ዮዲት ጉዲት a play on words approximating to Judith the Evil One.

Gudit's devastation caused the remnant of Aksumite population to shift into the southern region and established Dil Na'od and married his daughter. The Zagwe dynasty was known for revival of Christianity after Aksum, and by 13th century, Christianity reached to the Shewan region, which later formed Semiticized Amhara people.

Zagwe's existence was unfamiliar to the rest of world, however it was frequent with Egypt and Jerusalem. In Egypt, a rare evidence for Ethiopians existence were attested via discovery of Ge'ez manuscript fragmentary in the Monastery of Saint Anthony dating in mid-12th and mid-13th centuries. Furthermore, Ethiopians were proved well in Jerusalem by the half of 13th-century. Jerusalem itself influenced King Lalibela to have adaptations in Lalibela civilization, who also credited with construction of 11 monolithic churches in Adefa. The Zagwe's identity was perhaps obscured by this age; even the number of kings and reign spanning are very disputed among historians and academic study. Some sources such as the Paris Chronicle, and manuscripts Bruce 88, 91, and 93 state that 354, while Pedro Páez and Manuel de Almeida gave 143 years. Paul B. Henze reports the existence of at least one list containing 16 names.

Zagwe's rule ended when an Amhara noble man Iyasus Mo'a, the abbot of Na'akueto La'ab.

Yekuno Amlak ascension to the throne made the establishment of the Ethiopian Empire known by exonym "Abyssinia". He pertained his new formed dynasty called House of Solomon traced to the biblical Solomon and Queen of Sheba, a claim that Menelik I was their firstborn inaugurated the dynasty and the first Emperor of Ethiopia in the 10th century BC. According to medieval Ethiopian chronicle Kebra Nagast, which was translated to Ge'ez in 1321, his name was Bäynä Ləḥkəm from Arabic: ابن الحكيم, , "Son of the Wise". Menelik was conceived after his father Solomon tricked a visiting mother, Queen of Sheba, into sleep. He was raised by his mother as a Jewish in Ethiopia, and travelled to Jerusalem at his twenties for the first time. Though Solomon's plead Menelik to stay under his guardianship, Menelik nonetheless returned to Ethiopia for rule. According to biblical connotation, Solomon sent many Israelites to assist his monarchy, and offered Ark of the Covenant as a commemoration of king of Ethiopia. He was soon crowned as the tag when his mother dies. The legend context also mentioned in Acts 8: 26-40 depicts a 1st-century account of an Ethiopian royal official on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem from Ethiopia.

In the early 15th century, Ethiopia sought to make diplomatic contact with European kingdoms for the first time since the Aksumite era. A letter from Henry IV of England to the Ethiopian Emperor survives. In 1428, Yeshaq I sent two emissaries to Alfonso V of Aragon, who sent his own emissaries that failed to set up the proceeds trip domestic to Aragon.

The first non-stop relations with a European country began in 1508 with Portugal under Dawit II Lebna Dengel, who had just inherited the throne from his father. In 1487, King John II of Portugal sent two emissaries to the Orient, Pero da Covilhã and Afonso de Paiva; Afonso would die on this mission.